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Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)
History When millionaire Oliver Queen fell overboard from a yacht, he was washed up on a deserted island where he was forced to learn how to hunt with a bow and arrow in order to survive. He eventually escaped from the island by overpowering some drug smugglers and handing them over to the authorities. Changed by his experiences, he decided to give something back to society, in as exciting a way as possible - becoming a crime-fighter, using his archery skills for good. With a nickname coined by the press, Green Arrow and his sidekick Red Arrow (Roy Harper) made it their mission to protect Star City. He took his cue from Batman and built his own "Arrow Cave," complete with an "Arrow Car" and allegedly a yellow submarine. He and Speedy fought with trick arrows that were designed to be non-lethal. Green Arrow joined the Justice League of America and soon fell in love with member Black Canary II (Dinah Laurel Lance) (even though he was almost twice her age). Unbeknownst to the rest of the League members, in the early days Queen was one of the major financial backers of the team. He was also the only one that objected when the team relocated to a space station in orbit, feeling that they were too far removed from the people they were meant to protect. In the ensuing year after losing his fortune, Ollie traveled the country with Green Lantern Hal Jordan while his left-behind ward dabbled with drugs that caused the two to go their separate ways. While Ollie was on the team and they were located in their Sattelite base, the events alluded to in Identity Crisis transpired, although he eventually left the team during this era following the example of Black Lightning, who turned down membership to the group due to similar concerns. After being together for years, Ollie and Dinah relocated to Seattle and opened a floral shop. Ollie, about to turn 43, was having a bit of a midlife crisis. He wanted her to marry him and to have children, citing that Roy was "not technically" his son, nor was Lian technically his granddaughter, but Dinah objected, citing their career as superheroes as being too dangerous to go to that level. Dinah's warning would become a premonition when she was kidnapped and brutally tortured by sadistic criminal not long after their arrival (Dinah had been investigating drug trafficking undercover when she was found out). When Arrow found her tied up and brutally tortured, his rage led him to shoot the killer--only the second person Ollie had ever killed, and the first under these circumstances. Dinah's injuries were extensive--she lost her "canary cry" and was subsequently found to be unable to bear children. This marked a major turning point in Ollie's life. Green Arrow patrolled the streets of Seattle, no longer using the trick arrows for which he was so famed, but resorting to normal bodkin and arrowheaded ones. He tried not to kill when he could help it. Early on, he met a Ninja assassin named Shado. When Ollie was injured and being cared for by Shado, she proceeded to rape him while he was unconscious, conceiving a son she would name Robert. When Ollie found out about the son, Shado made it clear that he would have nothing to do with the child. It also caused a rift between Ollie and Dinah, since she despaired at not being able to give Ollie the one thing he had always truly wanted (not withstanding Roy and Liam). After many adventures around the globe, Ollie and Dinah began to grow more distant, resulting in her breaking up with him after she caught him kissing their assistant. With the depature of Mike Grell, Green Arrow was brought back more in line with traditional DC superheroes (although he still used real arrows, not trick ones). Ollie traveled for some time, running into Huntress, Catwoman, and even Deathstroke before being called to act for Zero Hour. Ollie refused to believe that Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), his oldest and closest friend, had indeed become the murderous Parallax. Ollie initially refused to fight against Hal, until the full depth of the former Green Lantern's madness became all too clear. In the final battle, Ollie shot Hal in the chest, being the crucial attack that stopped Parallax and saved the universe. Ollie was distraught, however, at the thought of having killed one of his best friends. Coping with his loss, Ollie withdrew to an ashram where he had spent some time earlier in life. There he met Connor Hawke, a young man who was also a skilled archer, and who would soon turn out to be Ollie's illegitimate son from a romance that predated his relationship with Black Canary (Ollie didn't know for sure that it was his son until Hal Jordan turned up, still crazy, but attempting to reconcile with Ollie). Connor joined his father and left the ashram for more adventures. On one such case, while stopping a militant group called the Eden Corps from leveling Metropolis, Oliver Queen was killed in an airplane explosion that even Superman failed to prevent. After Queen's death, Connor Hawke, the son whom he had barely known, picked up the bow and continued the good fight as the second Green Arrow. This wasn't Oliver's end, however, as Hal Jordan (during his time as Parallax) returned to save the earth during the Final Night and used his godlike powers to bring his old friend back from the dead. Unfortunately, the reanimated hero was an empty vessel with no soul, whose memories were replicated from his earlier days when he had a stronger liberal conscience. Ollie's more experienced soul remained in a Heaven-like place for a time, until it was reunited with his body in order to defeat an evil warlock named Stanley Dover. Now, the original Green Arrow was back in action with a rare second chance at life to make up for previous mistakes with his loved ones, all while renewing his vows to be a defender of the downtrodden. With the death of Stanley Dover, Ollie inherited Dover's estate. He renovated it, and established it as the Star City Youth Center. During this time, Ollie rescued fifteen-year-old Mia Dearden from a life of drugs and prostitution. He took her into his confidence, and into his home. Mia developed a crush on Oliver, and began emulating his actions. She even began training with a bow and arrow. Eventually, her extensive training paid off, and she became the new Speedy. During the Infinite Crisis, Ollie was engaging in a duel with Merlyn when Dr. Arthur Light triggered massive explosions. Critically injured by the attack, Ollie (along with Connor and Mia) relocated to the Marshall Islands where they remained in convalescence for several months. Once healed from his injuries, Oliver spent a fortune to hire the world’s foremost martial arts masters to come to the island. Over the course of many weeks, Ollie trained under the masters' tutelage until he was in peak physical condition. He further hired an assassin named Natas (the man who trained Deathstroke) to mentor him in the killing arts – a decision met with great enmity by his son, Connor. During this period, Ollie met a political campaign advisor named Frederick Tuckman. As Tuckman detailed the state of affairs in Star City, Ollie decided to take his fight in an entirely new direction. One Year Later, Oliver Queen is the newly elected mayor of Star City, continuing his fight on the streets and through the system. He also has a new costume, which appears to be a combination of the (classic Neal Adams costume and the Mike Grell Longbow Hunters costume). At the onset, it seems Mayor Queen is most interested in the "shock value" of his office, although his controversial decisions and statements are actually meant to draw attention to and benefit the devastated Star City. He uses an open interpretation of the town charter to perform same-sex marriages in Star City as a both a political statement and a way to boost the local tourist economy. He also exercises the power of his office to do things such as blackmail corrupt businessmen, or have the Star City SWAT unit back up his actions as Green Arrow while publicly condemning his alter ego. (He also used his connections to enable his longtime friend and former lover Black Canary to bring a young Vietnamese girl, Sin, into the country to be raised by Canary.) During the year long hiatus, Queen also amassed a quite large personal fortune by manipulating stocks of companies he sees as unscrupulous. While never stated outright, it appears Oliver Queen is now worth billions. The former gangster Brick now fights crime in Star City and allies himself with Green Arrow, although he evidently still traffics in drugs and prostitution. Before long however, Ollie faced problems from opponents who wore business suits as well as costumes. Deathstroke the Terminator, having been incarcerated at Alcatraz Island after a fight with Green Arrow, conspired with fellow inmate Constantine Drakon and Star City police commissioner Brian Nudocerdo to ruin Ollie politically. Following the battle with Deathstroke and his subsequent imprisonment, Green Arrow began a battle with Red Hood (Jason Todd) him to ally himself with Batman. Brick's friendship with Queen was short-lived as well, as it appeared that he has sided with Todd. The Green Arrow defeated Jason in a sword fight, however Jason escaped and kidnapped Speedy. Brian Nudocerdo publicly revealed that Queen had been secretly financing the Outsiders – a team whose actions at the time were ethically questionable and tantamount to terrorism. In light of these facts, Nudocerdo demanded a recall election and cast his hat into the ring as Ollie's mayoral replacement. Queen had little defense against the charges. It was true that he had been financing the Outsiders, but his motives were so that the group would be financially stable enough to enable his former protégé, Roy Harper, to leave the team and join the Justice League. In a private conversation with Hal Jordan, Oliver admitted that he missed the League "every damn day", but that he understood that Roy needed to be a member more than he did. In the midst of political scandal, Oliver Queen reignited his love affair with longtime paramour, Dinah Laurel Lance. After succesfully fending off an attack by Deathstroke and Constantine Drakon, Ollie asked Dinah to marry him, but she was not prepared to give him an immediate answer. Shortly thereafter, Ollie and Speedy helped Black Canary when Merlyn abducted Canary's "daughter" Sin. To save Sin's life, Ollie was forced to fake the young girl's death, keeping the knowledge of the plan between himself and Mia, even at the risk of losing Dinah forever. After Sin was placed into safekeeping, Ollie told Dinah what he had done. Recognizing that he was willing to sacrifice his own happiness to save a life, Dinah finally agreed to marry him. After a great deal of compromise and strife, Ollie and Dinah agreed to get married inside the Secret Sanctuary, the original cave headquarters of the Justice League of America. Wedding guests included nearly everyone within the super-hero community who were asked to attend the ceremony in-costume. The wedding was interupted by a phalanx of super-villains who attempted to take out as many heroes as possible in one fell swoop. Nearly all of the villains were apprehended except for Deathstroke who managed to escape. Despite the interuption, the ceremony concluded and Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance were married. Powers Oliver Queen's powers, if any, remain unknown. It has been rumored that Green Arrow may in fact be a Metahuman. The Department of Extranormal Operations has a classified dossier on Queen, wherein they indicate such a possibility, but as of yet, this information has not been confirmed nor denied. Abilities *Master Archer: Oliver Queen is perhaps the finest archer ever known. He claims to be able to shoot 29 arrows per minute (he stated this himself, in the Sound of Violence story arc, when he corrected Black Canary for saying 26). He has a wide-variety of trick arrows, ranging from bola arrows to time-bomb arrows to his infamous boxing-glove arrow. In recent years he has used these arrows sparingly, preferring the time-tested simple arrow. Green Arrow has shown the ability to shoot an arrow down the barrel of a gun, pierce a drop of water as it leaves a tap and shoot almost any part of the human body; although he aims only to wound and not kill when he shoots. *Master Martial Artist: He is proficient in several forms of hand-to-hand combat including Judo, Kickboxing and Karate. Proclaimed as a martial arts master, he has shown the ability to take on seven people at once. *Master Swordsman: Ollie is also very proficient with a sword, though it is not his preferred weapon of choice. *Aviation: He used to own and fly his own airplane called the Arrowplane. He still has some skill in flying different types of planes. Strength Despite his chronological age, Oliver Queen possesses the strength level of a man ten years his junior, who engages in intensive regular exercise. After his survivalist training in the Marshall Islands, Ollie is now in peak physical condition. Equipment Transportation Arrow Car, Arrow Plane, Yellow Submarine, Arrow Craft Weapons *Custom-made Bow *Trick Arrows *Sword Notes * Green Arrow was created by writer/editor Mort Weisinger and artist George Papp. The character was further developed by creators such as Jack Kirby, Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell, Chuck Dixon, Kevin Smith and Judd Winick. Trivia * Despite the difference in hair color, Oliver Queen bears a strong physical resemblance to Travis Morgan - the Warlord. Upon visiting Seattle, the Warlord was accosted by many members of the criminal underworld who mistook him for Oliver Queen. According to artist Mike Grell, the confrontation between Oliver Queen and the Warlord was born from a joke in which Grell was accused of only being able to draw one style of character. See Also *Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)/Gallery Links *http://en.dcdatabaseproject.com/Green_Arrow_%28Oliver_Queen%29 Category: Characters Category: Justice League Members